“Although we are busy for football season, business can be heavily influenced by team performance, and if the hometown favorite has a losing season, visits can drop off. The Big Game Giveaway provided another reason for Duffy’s guests to engage, and they responded. Paytronix’s real-time messaging enabled us to stimulate desired behavior. As a result, Duffy’s saw a big lift in traffic and sales.”

Sandy Nelson, Director of Marketing
Duffy’s Sports Grill

The Challenge

Having a sports-themed concept makes football season a very busy time for Duffy’s, but its business was fluctuating depending on team performance and even broadcast schedules. The Duffy’s marketing team wanted to find a way to keep fans coming in regularly throughout the season, regardless of the win-loss record of their favorite team.

The Game Plan

The Duffy’s team developed the Big Game Giveaway promotion, which would run during the NFL regular season. The grand prize was a trip for two to the Super Bowl, including roundtrip airfare, hotel, and transportation to and from the game.

Leveraging its messaging capabilities, Duffy’s invited MVP members to visit on Sundays and use their loyalty card to earn bonus credits. The overall objectives were to increase the total visits, the number of repeat visits, and the average guest spend per visit.

The Rules

There were two ways that an MVP member could earn credits:

1. Visiting Duffy’s during a Sunday NFL game resulted in one Visit Credit. After four Visit Credits were earned, the guest received one entry into the grand prize sweepstakes.

2. Visiting Duffy’s during a Sunday NFL game and spending at least $10 resulted in one Bonus Credit. After four Bonus Credits were earned, a $50 bonus was added to the guest’s account.

Duffy Wins Big

Prior to running the football promotion, Duffy’s didn’t have consistent member visits throughout Sunday NFL games during the regular season. After running the promotion, Duffy’s saw members visit and spend more, with sales increasing by 7.5% over the previous year.

“We couldn’t do this easily before because the data was in different places. Paytronix gives us the critical ability to integrate MVP data with check-level detail so we can message in real time based on guest behavior. We just could not message to guests in real time in the past.”

Duffy’s Sports Grill – Big Game Giveaway

Most Relevant Messaging – Duffy’s Sports Grill “Big Game Giveaway” was designed to keep fans coming in to the Florida-based sports bar throughout the NFL season – whether or not the guests’ favorite teams were winning or losing.

“The Big Game Giveaway provided another reason for Duffy’s guests to engage, and they responded. Paytronix Real-Time Messaging enabled us to stimulate desired behavior. As a result, Duffy’s saw a big lift in traffic and sales,” said Sandy Nelson, Director of Marketing, Duffy’s Sports Grill.

Designed to identify the latest trends in restaurant gift card sales and help restaurant marketing executives compare results to others in the industry, use trends for planning inventory, and gain insight into how channel sales contribute to the growth of gift card sales programs, the Paytronix Gift Card Sales Report analyzed more than 190 restaurant brands and 550 stored value program data.